At 8 a.m. Saturday, the National Hurricane Center issued an advisory stating that Tropical Storm Melissa is in the Caribbean Sea, 160 miles southeast of Kingston Jamaica and 235 miles southwest of Port Au Prince Haiti. The system, with maximum sustained winds of 70 mph, is moving west-northwest at 1 mph.

Tropical Storm Melissa is expected to rapidly intensify over the weekend into a Category 4 hurricane, according to the National Hurricane Center. The slow-moving storm is forecast to bring "life-threatening and catastrophic flash flooding and landslides to southern Hispaniola and Jamaica through the weekend.

Tropical Storm Melissa is expected to strengthen into a hurricane, threatening the northern Caribbean with massive rainfall and life-threatening flooding

Melissa is currently the only active tropical system in the Atlantic basin. As of Friday night, the storm remains nearly stationary, drifting north at just 2 mph. Maximum sustained winds are around 65 mph—just below the 75 mph threshold needed to reach Category 1 hurricane status.

At 5 a.m. Saturday, the National Hurricane Center issued an advisory stating that Tropical Storm Melissa is in the Caribbean Sea, 180 miles southeast of Kingston Jamaica and 245 miles southwest of Port Au Prince Haiti. The system is moving northwest at 3 mph, with maximum sustained winds of 65 mph.

Dozens of people were already in shelters in the Dominican Republic, and schools, businesses and government agencies were closed.

The strengthening storm is most likely to approach Jamaica and/or Hispaniola late this week. In the days that follow from there, the potential path for the storm remains uncertain, and troubling.